Union Ministers to tour North-East States every fortnight : Tour programme upto Feb chalked out
Source: The Sangai Express / Press Information Bureau

New Delhi, January 16 2015 : Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh, meeting with Ananth Kumar, Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs and senior officers of the Ministry of DoNER to finalize the roster for the tour of various Ministers to the North-East.

Eight Union Ministers will tour North-East every fortnight, including Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State with Independent Charge and Ministers of State.

These tour programmes, Dr Jitendra Singh said, had been planned on the directive of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is keen to focus on the North East.

During these tours, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the visiting Minister will review the works related to his/her Department and also participate in important events taking place in the region.

Union Ministers to tour North-East States every fortnight Tour programme upto Feb chalked out (North East Map)

At today's meeting, it was also decided that in order to ensure maximum utility of the tour by Union Ministers the North Eastern Council (NEC) with its headquarters at Shillong will coordinate the tour while the DoNER Ministry will arrange for its officers, stationed at Guwahati, to liaise with the visiting Ministers since Guwahati is the first airport at which dignitaries are expected to land for undertaking further tours in the region.

Dr Jitendra Singh further informed that during the first fortnight from January 1 to 15, a number of Union Ministers including Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Union MoS (Independent) for Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman, MoS for Youth Affairs and Sports Sarbananda Sonowal, Union MoS for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju toured the States of Meghalaya, Tripura, Assam and Nagaland.

In the second fortnight of January, Minister of Mines and Steel Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Law and Justice DV Sadananda Gowda, Minister of Civil Aviation Ashok Gajapathi Raju, MoS for Drinking Water and Sanitation Ram Kripal Yadav and MoS for Agriculture Dr Sanjeev Kumar Balyan are likely to undertake similar tours to eight North East States.

Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Ananth Kumar, Minister of Water Resources Sushri Uma Bharati, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawar Chand Gehlot and Minister of Minority Affairs, Dr Najma Heptulla will be requested to undertake similar tours during the first fortnight of next month, said Dr Jitendra.

Among the Ministers of States with Independent Charge and Ministers of States, Planning Minister Rao Inderjit Singh, Railways Minister Manoj Sinha and Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister P Radhakrishnan are also being requested to undertake tours during the month of February, he added.

Dr Jitendra Singh informed that he himself will be travelling to one of the eight North East States at least once in a month.